The American Way of Death Revisited

This whole thing started to kind of change with a book in 1963 that I kind of want to read now from yeah, Jessica Mitford called the American way of death where she really kind of exposed The US funeral home industry is being not so great.

Yeah, basically she she portrayed it as a an entire industry built around taking Advantage of people in a really predatory way.

I think she wrote an article at first and it got very little attention and then it was turned into a book I think she went on TV and it ended up becoming a book and really had a huge effect on how People viewed funerals from that point on

Yeah, and I guess maybe we should just caveat this now and say if we have listeners that work in the funeral industry We're not coming after you here this was a book that was written in the 1960s and we realize it's a business a for-profit business and upselling is part of that business and it just takes on a bit of a I guess Sort of an untoward feeling when it's dealing with people while they're grieving, but that's also the business you're in.

It was like like you just did not get cremated Before then and then all of a sudden and she by the way, she had a very cheap funeral including being cremated I read that she spent less than I think $800 in today's dollars. Oh nice on her own funeral

This whole thing started to kind of change with a book in 1963 that I kind of want to read now from yeah, Jessica Mitford called the American way of death where she really kind of exposed The US funeral home industry is being not so great

Yeah, basically she she portrayed it as a an entire industry built around taking advantage of people in a really predatory way.

I think she wrote an article at first and it got very little attention and then it was turned into a book I think she went on TV and it ended up becoming a book and really had a huge effect on how People viewed funerals from that point on

It was like like you just did not get cremated Before then and then all of a sudden and she by the way, she had a very cheap funeral including being cremated I read that she spent less than I think $800 in today's dollars.

I think her book came at a really like good time totally.

Jessica Mitford called the American way of death where she really kind of exposed The US funeral home industry is being not so great

basically she she portrayed it as a an entire industry built around taking Advantage of people in a really predatory way.

I think she wrote an article at first and it got very little attention and then it was turned into a book I think she went on TV and it ended up becoming a book and really had a huge effect on how People viewed funerals from that point on

It was like like you just did not get cremated Before then and then all of a sudden and she by the way, she had a very cheap funeral including being cremated I read that she spent less than I think $800 in today's dollars.

I think her book came at a really like good time totally.

Jessica Mitford was famous for several reasons. One reason was her investigative books, including her bestknown one, The American Way of Death, published in 1963. It revealed how the funeral industry was financially taking advantage of griefstricken Americans.

Jessica Mitford, let's talk a little bit about your writing. You're best known for the book, The American Way of Death, your expose of the funeral industry.

After writing The American Way of Death, did you find yourself in the position of having to genuinely prepare somebody's funeral and having to shop for real in the funeral industry?